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Monthly Archives: May 2013

The Bexar County Green party’s next general membership meeting is scheduled for June 2nd at the Mission Branch Library, 3134 Roosevelt Ave.

Meeting 2:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.

This new library branch is alongside the old Mission Drive-in (refurbished for community use)- Roosevelt Ave about 0.7 mi south of E Southcross Blvd (about 1.9 mi west of IH 37 at E Southcross exit; about 2.8 mi south of IH 10 at Probandt exit; about 2.9 mi east of IH 35 at W Southcross exit) & accessible by VIA Route 42. Clink on link for directions to library. http://goo.gl/maps/dWfE7

Meeting will be facilitated by Co-Chair Rachell Tucker, assisted by Greg Fox. Proposed Agenda items: Selection of delegates to Green Party of Texas State Meeting, discussion of involvement with Pride Fest SA . Development of local party objectives for the later months of 2013.

Date:

Friday, June 7, 2013 – 9:00am to Sunday, June 9, 2013 – 7:00pm

Location:

1 Pace Plaza

Pace University

New York New York 10038

United States

Left Forum provides a context for the critical dialogue that is essential for a stronger Left and a more just society. Each spring Left Forum convenes one of the largest gatherings in North America of the U.S. and international Left. Continuing a tradition begun in the 1960s, they bring together intellectuals and organizers to share perspectives, strategies, experience and vision. Dr. Jill Stein will keynote this year’s Left Forum, and will be joined by dozens of other members of the Green Shadow Cabinet in panels, workshops, and a reception. We urge you to register for the Left Forum now, and to look for updates regarding Green Shadow Cabinet-specific events at the Forum. Click here to register: http://www.leftforum.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=677

College fossil-fuel divestment movement builds

Kevin Bego, Associated Press

SWARTHMORE, Pa. — Student activists at more than 200 colleges, including University of Texas at San Antonio, are trying a new tactic in hopes of slowing the pace of climate change: They are asking their schools to stop investing in fossil fuel companies.

The Fossil Free campaign argues that if it’s wrong to pour pollution into the air and contribute to climate change, it’s also wrong to profit it. The strategy, modeled after anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s, aims to limit the flow of capital to fossil fuel companies by making their stocks morally and financially unattractive.

In theory, that could lead to a slowdown in how much fossil fuel is burned and indirectly speed investments in renewable energy.

At UTSA, a Fossil Free petition has collected only about two dozen signatures.

Timothy Garcia-Giddens, 32, who graduated from UTSA this month, recently launched the petition as an offshoot of the organization Students United for Socioeconomic Justice calling on UTSA to divest from the fossil fuel industry. He said he has yet to present the petition to university administration.

Garcia-Giddens said the group focused on climate justice last semester and is concerned about “over-industrialization” and oil dependency. He called on the university to cut ties with energy corporations Valero and Shell.

In 2009, the Valero Energy Foundation gave a $2.5 million gift to UTSA. In February, UTSA announced a collaboration with Shell to promote business growth in Carrizo Springs in light of Eagle Ford Shale developments.

UTSA representatives did not return a call seeking comment.

The Fossil Free campaign started in 2010 at Swarthmore College, a liberal arts school outside Philadelphia.

The following is a joint statement of Green Shadow Cabinet officers Leah Bolger, Secretary of Defense, and Ben Manski, Chief of Staff, regarding the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (2001 AUMF): It may be reprinted with citation and a link back to its original location on the web. http://greenshadowcabinet.us/

This past Thursday, Obama administration officials testifying before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee verified what had been unspoken up until now: that the executive branch intends to continue waging war indefinitely, and claims the power and authority to do so.

The topic for the hearings was the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, which was passed in a rush to reaction mere days after the 9/11 attacks. Together with the Patriot Act, the 2001 AUMF defied both the U.S. Constitution and international law and dealt a series of blows to the separation of powers, civil liberties, and accepted legal norms. Because most Americans were so stunned and frightened by the attacks of 9/11, they hardly questioned the legality or constitutionality of the AUMF at the time.

In one respect, the 2001 AUMF was written in extremely broad, encompassing language, giving George W. Bush carte blanche to attack any country or any person he suspected of having ties to the 9/11 attacks. Broadly, the AUMF gave Bush the power to, “use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”

But in another respect the AUMF had specific boundaries. It defined the enemy specifically as those connected with and responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Over the past 12 years, this authorization has been redirected into giving the green light for military action, extraordinary rendition, and even assassination of anyone who is considered a significant threat to U.S. foreign policy objectives.

The testimony last Thursday of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, Michael Sheehan, and Robert Taylor, the acting General Counsel for the Department of Defense, made clear that the Obama administration has adopted and expanded the Bush doctrine of preemptive and endless war. Assistant Secretary Sheehan stunned some senators while gratifying others when he said that the military currently has the appropriate authority to put “boots on the ground” in Yemen or the Congo, or “any (battlefield) that the enemy chooses to make it,” as suggested by Senator Lindsey Graham.

The Bush and Obama administrations have relied on the 2001 AUMF to use military force in countries that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and against people who weren’t even born at the time. The AUMF is purportedly the authorization being used to justify drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia that have killed thousands of people, 98% of whom were not affiliated with al-Qaeda, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The Obama administration even believes that the 2001 AUMF authorizes the killing of American citizens, as in the case of Anwar al-Awlaqi and his 16-year old son, who were murdered by Hellfire missiles launched from drones. These actions were never specifically authorized by a vote of Congress, and they were not authorized even under the sweeping terms of the 2001 AUMF.

In its abuse of the directives of the 2001 AUMF, the Obama administration has made a mockery of Congress. Yet the truth remains that that authorization was itself unconstitutional from the beginning.

Congress may not delegate its war powers to the executive branch. The constitutional power to declare war and to authorize military action is that of Congress and Congress alone. To authorize the executive branch to take military action wherever, whenever, and against whomever it chooses is by definition to delegate all war power authority to the executive.

That only one member of Congress – Representative Barbara Lee – stood up in 2001 to vote against the AUMF, says much about the lack of integrity and courage among those sitting in Congress at that time. But it does nothing to change the fact that even with a unanimous vote the AUMF would have been unconstitutional. A Congress of cowards does not constitutionalize an imperial presidency.

Either the AUMF of 2001 was as broad as the Obama administration claims, in which case it was and remains unconstitutional, or that AUMF was limited, in which case the Obama administration has violated it hundreds if not thousands of times already.

In the 12 years since 2001, the federal government has killed hundreds of thousands of people, captured tens of thousands, made refugees out of millions, and injured or otherwise harmed uncountable numbers in the “Global War on Terror.”

This kind of unending and unchecked war is the very thing the Revolutionaries of 1776 sought to prevent when they limited the power of the presidency and of the U.S. military. They called standing armies “the bane of liberty” and a threat to the promise of the new American states.

Instead, today, the President pursues a foreign policy that creates enemies through the murder of the innocent, aggressive wars of choice, and the flouting of international law. There seems no other explanation for these policies except that the Global War on Terror by its very design is intended to go on forever.

It is time for the American people, the courts, and Congress to strike down the 2001 AUMF. And because Congress and the courts have so far failed us, it is time for the people themselves to take up the question of who decides about war. To do so, we must hold accountable President Obama, his administration and Congress for violating their oaths of office. And we must move the war declaring power from Congress to a referendum of the American people, as proposed by Senator Ludlow in the 1930s and Congressman Dellums in the 1970s.

Green Party of Florida State Meeting

Jill Stein will be in Florida for the Green Party of Florida’s State Meeting May 25-26. The event is at the Franciscan Center at 3010 N Perry Ave, Tampa FL 33603. Dr. Stein will address the State Meeting on Saturday at 10:30am, followed by a panel discussion at 11am.

The Bexar County Green party’s next general membership meeting is scheduled for May 19th at the Mission Branch Library 3134 Roosevelt Ave. Meeting will begin at 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Agenda items: State convention update, National Committee (NC) delegates selection, expenditures for shirts, buttons, literature and printer costs, Council elections rundown, Monsanto March info.

This new branch is on the site of the old Mission Drive-in – Roosevelt Ave about 0.7 mi south of E Southcross Blvd (about 1.9 mi west of IH 37 at E Southcross exit; about 2.8 mi south of IH 10 at Probandt exit; about 2.9 mi east of IH 35 at W Southcross exit) & accessible by Via Route 42 .

What is Jill doing for her birthday today? Tonight she celebrates with a family birthday dinner. And today? She is preparing for her upcoming Keystone XL trial (she was arrested for bringing supplies to the Tar Sands Blockade in October, 2012). You can post your birthday wishes here, and make plans to see Jill, Cheri, and many more at this year’s Left Forum (NYC, June), Green National Conference (Iowa City, July), and Democracy Convention (Madison, August). Happy Birthday Jill Stein!! ( this on FB & Twitter:)

Doug is charged with criminal trespass per April 6th civil disobedience at the “Valero Texas Open”. It seems that Doug certainly caught the attention of people at the golf tournament. Spectators in the crowd could be heard talking about Manchester, and tournament officials were furious over having their well-manicured image tarnished. As Doug said, “Business as usual is over.”